Unlocking the Darkness Within (Private)

Kazue rolled out of bed with a groan. She was not happy to have to wake up so early on her day off. She knew she had promised her father that she would help train Kileos today though, and thats exactly what she would do. She walked into her bathroom and started a shower, letting the warm water wash over her body allowed her to get her mind right for the day. She knew with the exams only days away, this would be her last day off for a while, so she needed to try to enjoy it regardless of what she had to do. Exiting the shower and getting dressed, Kazue would head out the door of her apartment within the Uchiha compound.

While many didn't realize it, or many underestimated it, Konohagakure was much larger than Chowagakure had been. In fact, it was so much larger, that the Uchiha compound currently takes up half of what the old Chowagakure took up, and its less than a sixteenth of the entire village of Konoha. She made her way out of her apartment block, waving to her relatives she passed on the way to the clan heads house, her fathers house. This is where she was supposed to meet Kileos. Granted, she wasn't supposed to meet him for another hour and a half, but if she had to give up her day off, he would have to wake up early.

Stealthily making her way into the clan house, she knew her brother was the only one present. Her father was no doubt already at the Hokage tower beginning to tackle his daily tasks. Making her way through the door into the lavish room that was the entrance to the large building. She slowly made her way up the stairs and to the room on the right. She passed her old room, still set up exactly as she had left it the day she moved out, looking like some little Chuunin still lived there. Her brother's room was just down the hall. As she got closer, she could hear the sound of snoring. Yep, that was him. Perfect.

Entering his room she found it surprisingly well kept, and on the bed, spread out in a comical fashion, laid her snoring brother. She approached slowly and calmly, trying to decided the best way to wake him up. She had so many potential options it was hard to pick just one. She had an evil glint in her eye as she stalked closer to the young boy.

Gripping the underside of the sleeping Chuunin's bed, she would flip it upwards with all of her might, sending the clueless Uchiha flying across the room. At least now, he was awake. He rolled out from under his bed and groaned. "Kazueeeeee! Why do you always have to do stuff like that?!" Kazue would smirk as he started to get ready for their training today. "Because, it's fun. AND you need to learn to be guarded even whilst asleep!" It was somewhat true, that some shinobi could attune their senses so tightly that they could defend themselves from sneak attacks in their sleep. But, the main reason she did it so often is simply because she enjoyed it.

Torture had become a part of her very nature, so she tended to do it in some form or fashion to almost everyone she knew. The only two people who were seemingly immune to her sadism were her father and Rei Hyuuga. Though, it seemed everyone else was fair game. The two uchiha siblings made their way out of the house and towards the training ground where they would begin their training. But, on the way, they were intercepted by a messenger ANBU to go directly to her fathers office. So off they went.

When they arrived in the Hokage's office, they found the man, their father, sitting in his chair with his hands clasped together and his chin resting upon them. He motioned for them to sit and then had the doors shut behind them. Kosuke would speak, his voice betraying the gravity of the situation that brought them there. "There have been reports of a ninja in the land of water who is said to be a member of the Uchiha clan, or someone who holds a Sharingan at the very least. There are also reports of a missing ninja hunting this man to steal our kekkei Genkai for himself. You two are the only ninja not on active duty at the moment, so im sending you both to gather intelligence on both of these things."

After hearing what their father had to say, both brother and sister offered a curt nod before they were dismissed to prepare and then leave on their mission. They would travel into the wilderness of the Land of Fire through the eastern gate of the village, towards the Land of Water. They had a lot of ground to cover, so they would be stopping in a few different small settlements to search for any answers or sightings of either man they were looking for.

The Uchiha siblings continued to walk in silence for a few hours. Their first stop was a town called Fuji. It was a common stop for both ninja and merchant travelers who needed a place to rest or resupply. This would be a good place to begin their intelligence gathering. They entered the village by midday. It was bustling with various levels of activity, merchants selling their wares, ninja buying tools and civilians getting groceries.

Their first real stop would put them in the local bar which was tupically the best place to find intel on things. But, this intel usually came at a steep price, so they would need to tread lightly. Upon entering, they got a few glances in their direction, but none of the drinkers seemed to really care.

The two Uchiha approached the bar with a confident gait. The bartender was a middle aged, heavy set man with a bald head and a thick beard. He had on a dirty tee shirt with an apron over his lower half. He was washing a glass when they approached. They noticed there were a few ninja around the room, but most were minding their own business and seemed not to care about the two dark haired leaf nin that had entered. Good. Approaching the bar tender, the two ninja would sit down and order drinks. Kazue got a cup of sake, and Kileos got a glass of water.

Kazue would begin talking to the bartender. "We need information." The large man would turn to look at her. Speaking in a low voice, "Information ain't cheap in these parts little lady. What have you got to offer?" He would accentuate his question with a lust filled gaze that made Kazue sick to her stomach. She would turn to Kileos and tell him to wait there she was going to get information. With that, she followed the bar tender to a back room.

When they arrived in said back room, the bar tender attempted to push Kazue against a wall. This was a mistake. After a quick flurry of movement he would find his back against the wall, sexy. Said female pressed against him tightly, sexy. A kunai pressed against both his neck and manhood, definitely NOT sexy. He looked into her once black orbs to find them turned blood red with three tomoe swirling vigorously. Back with Kileos, all he heard within the first few moments of his sister disappearing through the door, would be a dull thump and then a rather feminine scream. He was about to go and investigate when his sister came out of the room and motioned him to follow her out of the building.

"He had heard that a missing ninja was looking for a man with the sharingan came through town. He knew that a local had heard of the man being spotted in a local town a few clicks to the east. This was just a day ago so we might can catch up to them if we leave now." With a swift nod from her brother, the two ninja took off.

They made good time to the village, not taking any stops the whole trip. It was a small town just on the border of the Land of Water. It also didn't take them long to get back onto the trail of their mysterious missing ninja. He was apparently a blonde man known as the Devil of the east. He was apparently wanted in Kirigakure for attempting to steal not only the Kaguya bloodline, but also attempted to steal the Yuki clans bloodline. He was captured for a time, but managed to escape before he was executed. He then set his sights on a larger goal. He was looking for the Sharingan. He didn't have the guts to go to Konoha as he knew the Kage was also the Clan head. He lucked out though, as apparently a shinobi had awakened the Sharingan, or something similar in the Land of Water.

She assumed that the man or woman who had it had either awakened a totally unrelated kekkei genkai or had somehow managed to get separated from the clan during the great ninja war. It wouldn't take long to spot the man as he was supposedly over six feet tall with blonde hair and a belt of kunai.

The took a few hours to search the town and managed to learn that the man they were searching for was actually the leader of a reclusive cult of bandits that worshiped Kekkei Genkai. The man was apparently an ex jounin and was very skilled in ninjutsu, ranged bukijutsu and taijutsu. He was also reportedly a master of the silent killing technique utilized by mist ninja. Kileos had decided that he would go scout the base out while Kazue tried to gather information about the purported Uchiha. It seemed like an okay plan, he was to meet her a mile outside of the bandit camp in two hours.

It had been nearly four hours when Kazue realized something was off and this wasn't just her brother being irresponsibly tardy again. She took off into the forest around the town in search of the bandit camp. She would not be losing her little brother today. Her sharingan was blazing with worry for her little brother.

Kazue made it to the rather large bandit encampment that was situated in a large clearing in the middle of the woods. It seemed to be right on the border of the Land of Water and the Land of Fire. The camp seemed to have around fifty or sixty bandits working in and out of it. After a moment of searching she saw her brother obviously unconscious held over the shoulder of a rather large bandit being carried into the largest of the buildings. She, using her amazing skills of deductive reasoning assumed that this was the leaders building and was where the missing ninja was directing his Bandits from.

She knew she couldn't rush in there half cocked either. She needed to do something to gather intelligence on the bandits and their leader before she went in for the final strike lest she risk hurting Kileos in her assault. She would sit down in a meditative pose with her eyes closed. She would send out two clones to infiltrate the base while she gathered nature chakra.

Her first clone appeared in the center of the camp with a kunai lodged in the neck of a random bandit. Of course, some more of the bandits came in to try to subdue her, but she managed to dispatch them with slight difficulty. It wasn't until she was attacked by around twenty all at once that the clone was overwhelmed and destroyed. The second clone capitalized on the resulting smoke and rushed in with a fire jutsu which managed to kill a few of the bandits before she came through with a kunai in each hand. She managed to take down the remaining bandits before a kunai landed in front of her.

Looking up, she saw the man who was supposedly the leader of the bandits standing there, staring at her with a sinister grin. His hand was bloody and one of his eyes had blood on it, but it was currently closed. Seeing this, caused her stomach to turn, she needed to see that Kileos was okay. She threw both kunai at the man, but he caught them both with his free hand with very little visible effort. This would be a tough battle.

She flashed through hand seals and blew a rather large sized fireball at the man, but he avoided it. It was at this point that he opened his other eye, revealing a Sharingan with two tomoe spinning around the pupil. She realized what he had done in that moment. She let out a scream of rage and formed a blade of wind on her fingertips. She sent multiple swipes, each seemingly easily avoided, but she kept up her attack. She knew she may be getting sloppy as she was getting pissed off. She knew that she needed to attack much more accurately to hit this guy, but he seemed to be just faster than she could keep up with, even with her sharingan active.

It was then that he seemed to grow less humerus. He suddenly vanished and reappeared. It was at this moment, the clone was burst and then she opened her eyes. Her sharingan was now a yellow color with red outlines around her eyes. She was now in sage mode and was ready to kick some ass. She could sense that Kileos was still alive, so that calmed her nerves some, but now she could say for certain that this man had taken one of her brothers eyes.

Taking off at a breakneck pace, she would practically materialize next to the man she had been fighting, sending a powerful punch rocketing into his jaw. He took the hit rather well, only sliding back a few feet. It was at this moment, her brother came stumbling out of the building with a hand on his eye, soaked in blood. This took her mind off of her opponent for just a split second, but that was all he needed to execute his attack. He slammed a palm into her stomach, somehow managing to blast her out of sage mode, he followed this with a barrage of kicks with some palm strikes mixed in there.

In the end, she was knocked onto her back with her breath knocked out of her as she watched him rush at her brother. The moment his hand, coated in chakra entered her brothers chest seemed to last forever. Due to her sharingan being active at the time, she recorded it all and it would be permanently ingrained into her memory from this moment on.

When it seemed that time had finally caught up to her, Kazue could feel an intense pain in her eyes. It felt as if they were on fire, yet no amount of water could help them. She could see him moving much slower than normal also. He seemed to have noticed something also as he had a very confused look on his face. Her eye would begin to bleed as his hand, the one still coated in her brothers blood was set ablaze in black flames. The man would let out a scream of pure agony as he looked to his arm that was now on fire. He wasn't sure how she did it, hell, she wasn't sure either, but he acted fast. He activated the chakra scalpel again and removed his burning arm. It was painful yes, but doing it this way also cauterized the wound.

He now seemed to be furious, wanting to seek revenge on his now lost arm. He formed a seal and a multitude of spears shot out of the ground towards Kazue. She dodged them all easily, almost as though she could sense where they were coming from. It was an odd feeling, but she wanted nothing more than to end this monsters existence.

He seemed to still be able to perform jutsu, but Kazue needed to kill him somehow. He was obviously very skilled, possibly equal in strength to Kazue, maybe a little weaker. She threw a volley of kunai at the man, and he dodged most of them. Two got stuck in his shoulder, this seemed to only piss him off more though. He sent another wave of rock spears to pierce her, but she was still much faster than the spears were able to move. She looked at him, focusing hard, but nothing happened. She wanted him to suffer, to burn in flames. But, it seemed as though she still had no control over this power.

The man formed his chakra blade again over his hand, but this time, Kazue would form her wind blade. The two would clash multiple times. Kazue only managed to keep ahead due to her skill with a blade and her newly awakened Mangekyou Sharingan. It infuriated her that this man was able to keep up with her, and it made her so angry that she wasn't able to protect her brother.

The man seemed to be much more skilled than she in the use of his blade technique, but this is to be expected as he hailed from the mist village. It is one of the most famous villages for its swordsmanship, rivaled only by Kumo. It was no surprise that the usage of a blade, or a blade technique were commonly trained in the academy, or in specialized training programs. It was obvious this man was extensively and masterfully trained in the art of a blade. He was able to match her stroke by stroke and was ahead of her in most of his moves and it was only due to her sharingan she could keep up.

She hated fighting him and looking into the eye she knew belonged to her brother. This made her so angry that she almost laughed out loud when his eye burst into the same black flames that had consumed his arm to nothingness now. It was actually very satisfying. To watch the man try to put out the fire that seemed to be immune to any water, earth or even other fire or wind. It seemed that it would burn on eternally, causing the man untold amounts of pain.

He fell to the ground as Kazue stoof over him, watching the fire spread around his head. After a few minutes, he stopped squirming. It was extremely satisfying to see the object of her hatred be consumed by the fires of heaven. "Let the eternal black flames of Amaterasu guide you to an afterlife of torture, scum." Is the last thing she would say before she passed out from chakra loss. She would have a single dream. It was more than a dream really, it was a single recurring nightmare. Only, this wasn't a nightmare, it was a reality, it was a memory. The memory of her brothers murder, all for the purpose of some nameless ninja getting access to her clan's kekkei Genkai. it infuriated her, and she could only imagine what her father would think.

When she finally awoke, it was almost night time. She needed to return to the village and inform her father of what happened. she sealed her brothers body away in a scroll and dashed back to Konoha at her maximum speed.

She ran through both of the villages they searched, seeing ghosted memories of her brother all the way. She was absolutely heartbroken, but it was her duty to immediately return to the village to give her report of what happened. This was her duty as both ANBU and as a sister and daughter. She knew her father would be grief stricken, but she had to be there for him in this time of need, just as he would need to be there for her. She couldn't even think about anything but this confrontation with her father.

When she finally arrived, she found herself unable to move at a good speed, and slowly dragged to the Hokage Tower, honestly dreading what was to come. She opened the doors and entered into his office, looking at him, sitting at his dest with his hands folded in front of his mouth. The headband covering his eyes giving away nothing as he said, "Report."

It was time to tell her father exactly what happened and why she returned with his last living son sealed into a scroll. Taking a deep breath, she would begin. "We left the village and made haste to the closest town in the direction of the Land of Water. While we were there, we managed to get access to information regarding the missing ninja, who had been in the same town only a day ahead of us. We also learned where he was heading. We followed swiftly, to a town close to the border with the Land of Water. When we arrived, we both split up to gather more information, he went to find information about the missing ninja, and I went to find information about the supposed Uchiha. We were to meet back up in two hours, after four I began to grow worried and began to search for Kileos. It took me a while, but I tracked him to a bandit encampment run by the Missing Ninja. After I killed all the bandits, I fought him. I came to find out he had stolen and transplanted Kileos' right sharingan. It was during our fight that Kileos came out of the building, and in a moment of distraction, the ninja managed to knock me back. He then proceeded to kill Kileos. It was after witnessing this, I gained access to an odd technique from my sharingan. I could create black fire wherever I looked."

Kosuke merely nodded, of course, he knew what had happened, he had spies following them. But, those spies had returned the moment that Kileos had perished to tell Kosuke. But, it didn't take a genius to fogure out that when Kazue saw that she would unlock her Mangekyou Sharingan.

Kosuke sighed, a single, bloody tear slipping down his cheek before he steeled himself. "What you unlocked is called the Mangekyou Sharingan. It is a higher form of the Sharingan that presents itself during times of extreme grief. Be wary when using the power it grants you, as it will lead to blindness. The only way to cure this blindness, is to transplant another Mangekyou Sharingan into the place of your own to gain an eternal light in your eyes. So, do not waste the jutsu or abilities granted by this eye."

With all this said, Kosuke dismissed her. As she left the office, and closed the door, she heard her fothers Grief-stricken sobs. She rushed to her own apartment and threw herself on her bed. She wanted nothing more than to forget what had happened to her today and to go back to the way things had been.